True Family
by Melodic Shadows
Summary: Family is based off of love, not of blood. T for language, mild humor.


Clannad is really hard to write fanfics on...its just so average-set, so picturesque...grr. Needs more creativity.

That and I fail miserably at understanding this whole illusory world and how it connects. But afterstory just confused the royal hairpins out of me, so meh. I'll avoid that.

I also don't quite understand the use of Japanese naming, so I Americanize by using first names. Meh.

Anyways, enjoy, average, archives, blah blah. Read.

* * *

**True Family**

The bowl of Sappuro Ichiban impacted the wall with a loud _crash_, sending small shards of porcelain and leftover noodles all over the point of impact. The tiled floor of the small house reverberated with every piece of the now-ruined bowl, the individual shards and pieces shaking and seemingly writhing in pain from the impact. The shards had not stopped their sensuous dance when a second object: a plastic cup, joined the dance, impacting the wall with the same force and clattering to the ground, still intact. With the clattering of objects finally coming to an abrupt halt, an eerie silence filled the house. The two men facing each other were stock still, one with a look of righteous fury, the other barely comprehending who he was.

Tomoya scowled, trying his best to keep his emotions in check. He was failing miserably, however, and he knew it was obvious, even to his father. Naoyuki Okazaki held the slightest twinge of fear in his glazed eyes, but otherwise there was no trace of emotion to be found. Despite Tomoya's burst of sudden anger, he remained seated in the corner of the room, a bottle of unfinished Sake still in his hand, with him staring at nothing.

Stooping down to his father, Tomoya waved his hand in front of Naoyuki's face, nearly smacking his nose in the process, given the proximity. When no sign of being seen was given, he drew back a fist and punched, once again holding back a bare inch from his father's nose. "Come on, dammit, talk to me! What the fuck is wrong with you!"

Still no response. Throwing his hands in the air, Tomoya forced himself to his feet and stormed out the door into the cold winter air. There was no response still from his father, no warning of the temperature, no warning for a coat. Nothing.

"That son of a bitch..." Tomoya muttered under his breath as he walked along the dimly lit streets of the city. It was the third time he found himself in the winter air, wandering aimlessly. Each time was exactly the same: he would show up late, around midnight or so, and collapse into his bed, staring at the ceiling. Perhaps one to two hours later, he would hear the door open and watch his father stumble in, smelling of spilled booze and blood, from the bar fights to the casino's. And each night Tomoya would yell at him, scream, shout for him to get some sense back into his head, to stand up and act like a father instead of a lifeless drunk. And each time, the response was the same. Silence.

It was a routine now. Not one that Tomoya particularly enjoyed, but one that he was forced to live with. He winced as the most memorable of the fights came into view: one that ended with him against the windowsill, the responding _snap _reverberating in his head as his shoulder was forcibly dislocated. It was that night that his father reverted to the silent treatment; out of fear or guilt, he did not know. But despite the physical pain he was going through, nothing compared to simply being ignored by his own father.

His shoulder never really healed. Tomoya never bothered to see a doctor about it; even if he did, neither he nor his father had the money for it. His shoulder was now slightly larger due to the bone mass needed to naturally repair it, and as such it hurt to use or even move.

In the end, the pain subsided, however, and with that minor distraction out of the way, Tomoya was finally able to focus on where he actually was. His initial reaction was relatively positive; The street lights and advertisement signs leading to the Furukawa bakery almost beckoned for him to come in, to rest. "To feel like a family...

"_To feel like a family..."_

Nagisa Furukawa. The girl that even made him smile a bit. Of course he'd eventually find his way here. For a moment, Tomoya wondered why he didn't come here in the first place, ever since the fights started. Perhaps it was the thought of being a burden, perhaps the fear of her not-so-slightly-insane father. Perhaps both.

"_Please stop by, whenever you'd like!"_

Perhaps neither.

Opening the screen door slightly, Tomoya was surprised to hear rising voices in the back room of the bakery.

* * *

"Now now, Sanae-chan, I'm sure the new recipe came out wonderfully! Why don't you hand me one of those treats, my darling dearest?"

"It's no use! I'm a failure! My cooking is horrible! _Horrible! _Akio-kun, forgive me!"

"Both of you, settle down...I'm sure your bread came out oka-"

"Do not break your mothers fragile heart, Nagisa!"

Nagisa sighed at the scene before her, but couldn't help but release a small giggle as her parents continued to go back and forth about the new bread recipe Sanae came up with. The first few customers only classified it as a "fantastic" bread, as opposed to "marvelous", and as such, her mother had gone into a guilt-ridden fit of tears, and was attempting to throw herself out the nearest window; the only thing holding her back was her father, wrapped around Sanae's waist, pleading and begging her to sit down and relax. The unlit cigarette was amazingly undisturbed in Akio's mouth as the two writhed about on the floor of the back room, yelling back and forth about the definitive value of compliments.

Deciding to double-check the inventory in the store before going to bed for the night, Nagisa had just begun to turn for the door when a human figure burst through the doorway. With a cry of surprise, the force of the blow sent her tumbling back to the floor.

Instead of the cold-bamboo mat, however, her landing was met with two arms that circled her waist, and the chest of Tomoya, who easily lifted her back onto her feet. Blushing furiously, she was about to back up and stammer out an apology, but was surprised to see Tomoya beat her to it.

"I-I'm sorry, Nagisa! I wasn't watching where I was going and I-..." Tomoya was hushed by a simple smile from Nagisa, and immediately knew that there was no harm done.

Still smiling slightly, Nagisa tilted her head to look at her classmate curiously. "What are you doing here, Tomoya? It's already midnight, you should be at home..." She was about to press further but was cut off by the dark look from Tomoya. The stare wasn't threatening at all, but Nagisa could see tinges of everything negative in his eyes. Pain, fear, sadness...all of it reflected in the distant stare that her friend now held.

After a moment, Tomoya looked up to her, his eyes still swimming with emotions, now tinged with a little guilt and regret. "Can we...go talk for a bit?"

"Of course. Let's go to the park. We can talk alone there." Nagisa looked at him reassuringly, and Tomoya couldn't help but smile at that. _"I should be a burden...but she'll never see me as that."_

Ignoring the protests of her father, who was now bellowing after them to check in every ten minutes while still holding his masochist-wife down, Tomoya and Nagisa exited the bakery and into the cool winter air.

* * *

The dimming street lights around the pair were slowly fading away as their overworked bulbs slowly began to wither. With each passing moment, the devices too retreated into darkness, charging the moon and stars above with lighting the city. The occasional cloud above obliged the request, moving to the sides, letting the night sky shine in all its glory.

The pair walked in silence, the occasional "gomennasai" heard as the two bumped shoulders accidentally. Occasionally one would steal a glance at the other, but quickly retreat with a slight blush as the other attempted to do the same. Nevertheless, the walk brought about a sense of comforting peace, bringing them away from the chaos of family, the turmoils of life.

Though the walk itself brought a sense of peace Tomoya had never felt before, he was starting to get a little unnerved, and was about to speak when an oddly familiar scream echoed from the park.

"That sounded like...Sunohara!" Tomoya and Nagisa picked up their pace, entering the park at a light jog. Despite the light the moon and stars provided, the pair still had to focus to pick out anything in the park. The scream echoed through once again, and Tomoya was finally able to decipher the location of the sound. Rounding an overgrown thorn bush, Tomoya finally found the source of the horrible scream.

And immediately collapsed on his ass in a laughing fit.

There lay Sunohara, the remnants of a tire swing pinning his arms to his sides, hanging from a tree by the mere seams of his school-issued jeans, precariously perched over the park-supplied birdbath. Right behind him stood Tomoyo with a bored look on her face. Upon seeing Tomoya and Nagisa, Sunohara immediately began hurling whatever words that he was able to think of at the pair, namely the ones focusing around "Get me down, you damn baka!" and "I'm going to kick silverhead's ass into high heaven!"

Chuckling slightly, Tomoya, in a rare gesture of selflessness, moved towards his trapped friend. "Hang on there, buddy, I'll get you down. Nagisa, you carrying your scissors?"

"Hai...?" Reaching into her pocket, Nagisa brought out a small pair of clippers, normally used for trimming thread off of bakery packages. Ignoring her confused look, Tomoya accepted the scissors and walked over to the tree containing Sunohara, who was smiling in appreciation. The tree stood no chance as Tomoya used his good arm to haul himself up to the branch where his friend was trapped. Grabbing the pant leg, he looked for the bits that were suspending him from the tree. "Ah, here we go..."

_Snip._

With a bellowing cry of "KUUUSSSSOOOO!" Sunohara fell straight out of the tree and into the birdbath below, soaking him from head to foot. The porcelain statue cracked straight in two, sending him straight to the cold earth below.

Leaping out of the tree, Tomoya stared at the prone body of his friend with the same bored look as always. Quickly recovering and jumping to his feet, Sunohara began stalking towards Tomoya with a death glare on his face, only to be met by the very person who got him into the predicament in the first place.

"I believe our business is not finished, Sunohara-san."

With that, Tomoyo delivered the milestone four-thousandth kick into Sunohara's ribcage, this time sending him clear out of the park and into the starry night beyond. Without looking away from his disappearing form, she spoke to the pair watching in awe. "Make a wish on a shooting star, guys. You may see another one soon."

With that, Tomoyo exited the park in the direction of their airborne friend.

* * *

It took a good ten minutes for Tomoya and Nagisa to calm down from the laughing fits, and ten more before they could speak in coherent sentences. By then, the two were on the swings, gently swaying with the wind, once again sitting in the comfortable silence the two had grown so accustomed to.

Nagisa knew something was wrong. She knew Okazaki-san better than anyone, and though he tried to hide his emotions, his eyes spoke volumes. The downcast look, the tightened corners of his mouth, the furrowed eyes. Everything spoke sadness, and in turn, it made her sad. She was about to speak, to ask what was on his mind, before he beat her to the punch.

"What's it like, Nagisa? To have a family?"

That question caught Nagisa off guard. She knew his father wasn't the best, but he was family...right? Deciding to answer the question, she turned to face Tomoya fully.

"It's...fun. Lively. Cheery. My parents are insane, but they always mean well.

"But why, Okazaki-san? You have your father, isn't it the sa-" Nagisa gasped, realization slowly seeping in. "He hasn't started to beat you again...has he?"

Tomoya simply chuckled. "No...but what he's doing is worse. He ignores me. He hasn't spoken a word in a long time. A nod here and there, but nothing more."

"Thats...thats..." Despite herself, Nagisa started to tear up, immediately empathizing with Tomoya's pain. Quickly seeing that she was on the verge of tears, he leaned over and brushed the tears out of her eyes.

"Ah...hey, no crying, baka...it's not your fault..." Though her tears were quick to stop, Tomoya stayed leaning forward, ready to catch any more on a moments notice.

It was a while before Nagisa spoke again. Lifting her head up, she met his eyes once again. "Okazaki-san...don't forget. He's not your only family."

Tomoya could only stare at her; she took that as her cue to continue.

"My parents think you're family. Your classmates are your family. Tomoyo, Sunohara, the Fujibayashi twins...we all love you." Nagisa flushed a little at the "L" word, but the night sky hid it fairly well.

"But...he's my father! I can't just abandon him!" Tomoya retorted.

"Why?"

"Well..." Searching his mind, Tomoya couldn't think of a single reason why. He just felt like he knew. "He's family, no matter what. Even if he hates me."

"Maybe..." Nagisa nodded again, desperately racking her brain for any form of solution. Something to keep Tomoya away from his father for a little while...

It hit her like a hammer. "Okazaki-san! Come stay with us for a little while! We have a spare room, you'd be fine! As long as my father doesn't kill you and my mo-" She was cut off by Tomoya's finger pressing against her lips, effectively silencing her.

"Thank you, Nagisa, but I'll be okay. I don't want to impo-"

"You won't! I want you to!"

Nagisa immediately flushed as red as the morning sunrise at the sudden interruption, but moreso at what she just said. Thoroughly embarrased, she ducked her head once again and continued. "You need some time away from him...maybe then you two can figure out whats going wrong."

Looking up, her flushed face was apparent now. "Gomennasai, that was out of line, I-"

Tomoya immediately cut her off. "No, Nagisa...You're right. Perhaps I do need some time away from him...away from everything. If it wouldn't impose, I'd be honored to stay with you." He chuckled, pulling her back to look into her eyes. "I need to go home and pack though."

"H-hai..." Nagisa blushed furiously and buried her head once again into his shoulder. "Can we...stay here? For a bit longer?"

Tomoya smiled, a small, but genuine smile for the first time in a long while. "Hai."

And with that, the pair stayed like that, comforted by the presence of another, reveling in the company of someone they cared about, someone they'd fight to protect.

Family.

The sun was just peaking over the horizon when Nagisa finally returned home.

* * *

The shards of the bowl still lay strewn against the wall when Tomoya finally returned home. Hastily stepping over the form of his still sleeping father, he grabbed a small travel bag and stowed what belongings he bothered to take. His clothes were few and far between, and all that he needed fit easily within the rucksack. Placing it around his back, he turned to the stirring form of his father.

"Goodbye for now...baka."

With that, the door closed behind him, and the house was still once more.

* * *

**Story (chapter?) End.**


End file.
